Android can still be hacked in 193 ways due to unpatched security vulnerabilities

DECCAN CHRONICLE.

Published Aug 25, 2019, 4:16 pm IST

Updated Aug 25, 2019, 4:16 pm IST

The issues can prove to be perks for hackers even though Google rates them as “moderately” severe.

Google has meanwhile made it mandatory for all new apps to require a period of at least three days for approval before they go up on the Play store. (Photo: Representational Image/AFP)

Google will soon release its next version of the popular Android operating system in the form of Android 10. While it will surely be a big update with Google completely redefining elements including the Android logo and colours itself, there are still a total of 193 ways hackers can take ‘control’ of your Android device thanks to some unpatched security vulnerabilities. Google hopes to fix all of these in their new release.

“Android Q devices with a security patch level of 2019-09-01 or later are protected against these issues (Android Q, as released on AOSP, has a default security patch level of 2019-09-01),” said Google in its Android security bulletin.

The vulnerabilities include denial of service, remote code execution and an issue with Android runtime. The issues can prove to be perks for hackers even though Google rates them as “moderately” severe. This is probably because Google hasn’t received any reports of the abuse of said vulnerabilities, as confirmed by the company.

“Exploitation for many issues on Android is made more difficult by enhancements in newer versions of the Android platform,” added Google, stating how important it will be to update to the new Android version.

In the long time span that it would take Android users to migrate to Android 10, Google has meanwhile made it mandatory for all new apps to require a period of at least three days for approval before they go up on the Play store. That translates to users not being able to instantly upload their applications and get them up on the play store. The increased approval time step is taken to thoroughly go through the app to prevent the millions of users who would be affected once the app goes online.

The process is different from the “closed alpha review” which is also done by Google. The new policy will try to prevent malicious apps, which are the main sources of malware infection, from making their way to the shelves of the Play Store.